"Daniel Deronda", George Eliot's last, great novel, was highly acclaimed on its first publication in 1876. It tells the intertwining stories of two young people seeking their paths in life: the beautiful Gwendolen Harleth, and Daniel Deronda, whose parentage is a mystery to him. The work of an authoress at the height of her powers, it is, however, much less widely read nowadays than its predecessor "Middlemarch" - partly due to its extreme length and density.
This abridgement shortens the book to about 60 per cent of its original length, whilst being careful to retain its character and all elements of the plot. It aims to make this important and insightful novel more accessible to today's general reader.